tHoC have just completed a small but charming intro to the net-a-porter.com’s christmas gift section.
Andrea Falcone worked at tHoC HQ whilst Daffy helped out from LA.  Our new ‘ultimate scene’ within Maya, was put to full use to enable a quick turnover for the sequence. As projects have come and gone, we’ve been storing and optimising settings for all of the different layers required for high quality rendering. This new pass generator allows for maximum flexibility in composite for complex effects such as photographic depth of field, accurate motion blur, sub surface scattering etc.

See the sequence at…
http://www.net-a-porter.com

UPDATE - 4th JUNE 2009 : DIGITAL ARTS - Interview
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=12734
UPDATE - 29th MAY 2009 : CREATIVITY LINK
http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=8cfc667f
UPDATE - 28th MAY 2009 : BOARDSMAG ‘TOP SPOT’
http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/tvfilm/7629
UPDATE - 28th MAY 2009 : CG CHANNEL LINK
http://www.cgchannel.com/
UPDATE - 26th MAY 2009 : MOTIONOGRAPHER WRITE UP
http://motionographer.com/2009/05/26/europride-pufff/
UPDATE - 21st MAY 2009 : MENTION ON FEED
http://www.feedhere.com/?p=4393

Europride Pufff directed by Richard Hickey is our proudest moment to date. It represents the nature of work we’d ideally be doing 24/7. Quirky, edgy and a bit of glitz and glamour. It was done under extremely limited circumstances, yet film crews, international drag queens, audio genuises (i?) and one top producer came together to make it what it is.

Although it seems that Richard and I have been working on this little thing for months, it’s only been a matter of weeks. As well as doing the CGI as per usual, we were thrilled as a studio to take some extra reigns in terms of editing, digital cinematography and final compositing.
You can see a Youtube HD version at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4tVpZlmBUM

We have reems of funny footage which we’ll turn into a podcast, but for now here’s a clip of me prepping for the role…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HJdkY0FoUs

Watch this space for updates…
Credits
Directed by Richard Hickey
Produced by Clare Spencer - Grasshopper Films
Post produced by Andrew Daffy - The House of Curves
Edited, Prevized, Modelled, Animated, Lit & Composited by Andrew Daffy
Technical Director - Matt Estela - The House of Curves
Birdcage model - Xavier Roig
DOP - Adam Frisch
1st AD - Andy Cameron
Art Director - James Hatt
Lyrics by Richard Hickey & Andrew Daffy
Storyboard Artist - Laurie Proud
Sound Engineer - Sam Ashwell  - 750mph
Sound Producer - Syleste Molyneaux  - 750mph
TK using Resolve - Adrian Seery - Rushes
Agency Creative - Adrian Egger - TBWA, Zurich
Account Director - Philipp Sattelmeyer - TBWA, Zurich
TV Producer - Daniela Berther - TBWA, Zurich
Client - Michael Rueegg - Europride

Cast
Voice Artist - Richard Laing
Husband - Richard Woolnough
Wife - Hilary Field

Other Crew
Production assistant - George Nelson
Runner - Phil O’Conner
Runner - Brian Fairbairn
Focus Puller - Charlie Herranz
Grip - Pete Nash
DIT - Tom Mitchell
Gaffer - Fred Todd
Electrician - Dave Nye
Art Director Assistant - Ben Lack
Art Director Assistant - Sam Waters
Art Director Assistant - Emma Svensson
Make up Artist - Emma Sherry
On set costume designer - Lori Land

Inspired by Dusty ‘O’, Tasty Tim and the Trannyshack team

tHoC hardware and software
Workstations/Renderfarm - Dell workstations
Workstations/Renderfarm - Apple Mac Workstations
Renderfarm - Apple Mac Mini’s
Wacom Cintiq Tablet

tHoC production
3D software - Autodesk Maya 2009
Renderers - Mental Ray (built into maya)
Texturing/concept - Adobe Photoshop CS3
Rigging software - The Setup Machine 2
Facial Animation - Blendshape Combination System (BCS)
UV pelt software - Sunit Parekh’s Pelting Tool
Davina Hair - Carpaint shader (high end 3d)

tHoC Finishing
Compositing/Editing software - Adobe After Effects CS3
Depth of Field - Frischluft
Glows and flares - Starglow

tHoC Management
Renderfarm manager - Frantic Films - Deadline
Shot/notes progress - Googledocs

MATT ESTELA REEL

ANDREW DAFFY REEL

tHoC - showreel credits

MUSIC

• BLAMMA BLAMMA - Carry me home

INTRO

• KIM JONES fashion show film edit
• CHEMICAL BROTHERS salmon dance
• BO IN THE USA titles, vfx, stings & dvd menus

STUDIO

• DISCOVERY CHANNEL michael lau
• QWEST fortune 500
• WONDER PERFORMANCE duck campaign
• NESTEA leon the chameleon
• FIVE FWD gadgets
• ING credit card
• BAGGY TROUSERS pilot
• EASISINGLES little boy
• A BEARS CHRISTMAS TAIL titles
• KIM JONES fashion show film edit
• LOSING HER dream sequence
• SWIVEL HEAD TED work so far
  

FREELANCE

• PALOOK swan lake -  studio aka
• HUGO BOSS underneath it all -  finish
  
• LEXUS drips - finish
• BMW its only a car - finish
• BA ease -  glassworks
  
• BUPA kisses - finish
• ORANGE origami -  mill
  
• FORD birds -  framestore
  
• HISCOX superstition -  framestore
  
• CHEMICAL BROTHERS salmon dance -  framestore
  

(…maybe less Celine Dion, more Dionne Warwick)

COMING SOON - Free skin shader/eyeball model/HDRI lighting setup

29 JANUARY 2009 - FIRST FACE EXERCISE TEST
The clip below shows the face positioned in a few early positions. We’re happy how the tongue is working, and there’s a nice stretchy, fleshy feel to the skin, yet still preserving the volumes of the skull within.
SWIVEL HEAD TED - milestones

5 JANUARY 2009 - INTERNAL SKULL WORK
After doing some face shape tests, Daffy figured that we should really get a feel for where Swivel’s skull should sit. In Photoshop CS3 we took an anatomical image from the web, and distorted it to match Swivels features.

From here we latticed a cheap skull that we downloaded from turbosquid into the correct locations to fit Swivel head.

SWIVEL HEAD TED - milestones
This ‘chewing gum’ test is done by LITERALLY assigning the jaw and skull of Swivel to his outer skin model using Maya’s WRAP DEFORM. This is giving Daffy cause to consider using the bones in the final facial rig.

20 NOVEMBER 2008 - FIRST RENDER OF ELEMENTS COMING TOGETHER

We’re very excited by the realism we’re getting on our skin, although the shave-mental ray pipeline is breaking. We’re now exploring 3Delight

15 SEPTEMBER 2008 - PHOTOSHOP BLENDING OF SKIN TEXTURE

Since the 3D World article release, we felt that our skin textures weren’t holding up, so we took some high res images of Matts skin, and frankensteined them together based on the UV set.

1 JUNE 2008 - SWIV RELEASED ON THE FRONT COVER OF 3D WORLD

3D World have generously put Swivel on their front cover as part of their 50 VFX tips issue.
Many thanks to Jim Thacker, Richard Llewellyn & Paul Champion

15 APRIL 2008 - MATT PUTS HDRI THEORY TO TEST

We’re using an old nikon coolpix 4500 with the FC-E8 185 fisheye lens adapter to capture the lighting information of our sets.
The tripod we have is a Manfrotto 190XPPROB

24 MARCH 2008 - W.I.P. OF SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT

After much grooming, mucking about with settings, Matt managed to make this lovely looking hair. We’re liking the natural feel and the oily finish. If only it would render on the farm.

15 FEBRUARY 2008 - MATT LEARNS HDRI PROPPA
Matt has been looking into the latest techniques HDRI lighting theory, after much browsing found this. It has lots of good ideas, and simple techniques to get great photorealistic results as well as bringing the render times down.
The HDRI Handbook by Christian Bloch

10 OCTOBER 2007 - RENDER / SCALE TEST

We put this together to test how well the model rig would hold up, and to see Swivel in a natural environment.
5 SEPTEMBER 2007 - THE SETUP MACHINE ASSISTS IN OUR RIGGING

We’re so happy to be using The Setup Machine 2 to puppeteer Swiv. After not much faffing, we’re getting some great positions.
This pose was built by Nikki Willson.

23 AUGUST 2007 - FACE SCULPTS IN ZBRUSH

Before getting bogged down with facial rigs, we’ve decided to get one of our genius friends to build some Zbrush sculpts of Swivel, giving us cues for how to continue modelling him, and how to ultimately rig him.

1 JULY 2007 - OUR FIRST MODELS!

tHoC student Andrew Savage has launched straight into the modelling Swivel from the concept sketches. Exciting times.

20 OCTOBER 2006 - INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR RICHARD HICKEY

‘We all have a dark side to our subconscious. No matter how deep we bury it, it is there in all of us to varying degrees. It is the busy little part of your subconscious that processes the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. It chooses what information is relevant to pass onto the conscious state to decide what to do.

It goes about its business constantly, at the speed of light, and only ever pushes ‘hot’ information for you to digest and process in your consciousness on the odd occasion.

In our case this deep seeded little demon goes by the name of Swivel Head Ted. He has forced his way out of our subconscious and materialised in our film in the form of a two foot vengeful teddy boy.

Hmmm? How to tell this story in visual terms and make Swivel a believable character.

There is so much bad or just plain silly CGI on our screens, and most of it fantasy/adventure, that I was reticent at the thought of using it. I originally thought about using stop frame animation with Swivel as a mannequin.

For my money, if you want something to look ‘of another world’ you can’t go wrong with the work of Ray Harryhausen. The thought of Medussa from clash of the titans or the skeleton army from Jason and the Argonauts surrounding my bed at night gives me the creeps. I know Rays quite busy, so CGI it was.

I wanted Swivel to be a one off, an out there iconic CGI character of the highest finish. When I talked to most post houses about the level of finish I wanted and that it was for a short film, most laughed and said it would be impossible, and wondered if I’d considered shooting him live action and enlarging his head! What? They where all missing the point. I had set my heart on creating an amazingly believable CGI character, and if they could not do it then I did not want to help create some third rate character, there are enough of those out there already.

So after two years of research I had almost given up. Then a breakthrough. I had heard this guys name mentioned a few times and that Swivel might be the kind of thing he would be interested in. His name was Andrew Daffy, and that he had set up his own studio called ‘the house of curves’ (tHoC).

I sat with Daffy in the pub and gave him the low down on what level of craftsmanship I wanted to achieve. He listened and said at the end that he loved the character and would help out. Ah, the relief. It was then that just for a split second I was sure that Daffy had donned a white gown, a shaft of ethereal light shone down onto his bonce and he had levitated a few centimetres.

The most common factor that has bound us together on our quest has been that we both want Swivel to be unique and amazing. We need him to feel real if slightly not of this world. And to achieve that tHoC have taken me on a really exciting journey into deep 3d and beyond. With every new render that they show me comes an amazing new wave of excitement, leaving a thirst and eagerness for the next viewing.

I can be a real pain in the arse to work with, as I set high standards for myself and the people I work alongside. So for me, I cannot give tHoC a greater complement than to say I have been able to keep my mouth shut and let them constantly surprise me, not only with the standard of the work but the continued excitement for the project.’

20 SEPTEMBER 2006 - WHO IS SWIVEL?

Character Illustrations by

The House of Curves have teamed up with Director Richard Hickey to bring Swivel to life. The project will be a live action short film featuring a photorealistic humanoid CGI character named Swivel Head Ted …also the title of the film.

‘Swivel Head Ted is a deep seeded little demon that has forced his way out of our subconscious and materialised in our film in the form of a two foot vengeful teddy boy.’

www.swivelheadted.com (coming soon…)

CREDIT LIST TO DATE
Flimsy Films
Director - Richard Hickey

Grasshopper Films
Producer - Clare Spencer

Director of Photography - Adam Frisch

The House of Curves
VFX Producer - Stuart Robinson
VFX/CGI Supervisors - Andrew Daffy & Matt Estela
Swivel Modelling - Andrew Savage & Anna Kubik
Wrench, Faceshapes - Adam Dewhirst
Norton Motorbike - Andrew Savage
Electric Guitar - Loretta Okoh

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE/RESOURCES TO DATE

Workstations/Renderfarm - Dell workstations
Workstations/Renderfarm - Apple Mac Workstations
Renderfarm - Apple Mac Mini’s
HDRI camera - Nikon Coolpix 4500
HDRI fish eye - FC-E8 185 fisheye lens adapter
Tripod -  Manfrotto 190XPPROB

3D software - Autodesk Maya 2008/2009
Renderers - Mental Ray (built into maya) & 3Delight (under investigation)
Texturing/HDRI management software - Adobe Photoshop CS3
Compositing/Editing software - Adobe After Effects CS3
Hair System - Shave and a Haircut
Rigging software - The Setup Machine 2
Facial Animation - Blendshape Combination System (BCS)
UV pelt software - Sunit Parekh’s Pelting Tool
Chrome Ball to environment facility - Flexify
Renderfarm manager - Frantic Films - Deadline
Shot/notes progress - Googledocs

HDRI theory - The HDRI Handbook by Christian Bloch
Hair theory - Generating Realistic Hair for “The Matrix Reloaded”
Eye Texture - Eyescapes
The importance of the Skeleton - Stuart Sumida
Facial Coding (FACS) information - Research Centre - filmakademie - baden wurttemburg

Daffy talking about good CGI eyes (photo by Loretta Okoh)

Daffy talking ducks! (photo by Loretta Okoh)

ANIMEX 2009 - link
www.animex.net

1. GENERAL COMMENTS
2. WORKSHOP NOTES/LINKS
3. TIPS FOR STUDENTS LINKS

1. GENERAL COMMENTS
Thanks so much to all who helped get the workshop on track. I apologise that it was just me, and for the hiccups at the start of the day, but I hope you all enjoyed what I had to share, one I’d gotten into my stride.
Thanks also to those who kept calm as we ran around looking for a powerlead  during the main presentation. Chris, your festival is a punchy and vibrant as ever! Here’s to another 10 years.

2. WORKSHOP NOTES/LINKS

a) HDRI theory - The HDRI Handbook by Christian Bloch,

b) Camera gear - We use an old nikon coolpix 4500 with the FC-E8 185 fisheye lens adapter. Its cheap now on ebay and looks like this:

c) To process our fisheye images we use Photoshop’s ‘Merge to HDR’ function.

d) The Flexify plugin is used to convert them from fisheye’s into the lat-long format mentalray expects.

e) Our hair is done with Shave and a Haircut

f) The Swivel and Leon the Chameleon rig you saw were done using The Setup Machine 2.

g) The facial rig uses the Blendshape Combination System (BCS).

h) Our face shapes are based on the FACS system, researched most recently at the filmakademie - baden wurttemburg

3. TIPS FOR STUDENTS LINKS
Our talk focused on tips based on the poster released with Septembers issue of Imagine magazine, and its unabridged partner, the pdf. available here… http://www.thehouseofcurves/tips

4. PIXIONARY
Thank you to everyone who took part in PIXIONARY. The audience - who guessed words from the simplest to the most obscure (Sphynx, Cat and Lemon still boggles us), the speakers who looked on in awe/bemusement, AND OF COURSE the volunteers who deserve a real pat on the back for overcoming ‘the fear’ and having a go. I hope you’re enjoying the advent calendars!

—————————————————————-

TIPS FOR STUDENTS - talk
Based on their ‘Tips for Students’ poster released in Septembers Imagine magazine, Andrew Daffy and Matt Estela will discuss how to make the most out of uni’ life, relating specific tips to real world examples from projects they’ve been chiselling away at over the last year.

CGI DIARIES - workshop
It took a company the size of Weta to bring Gollum to the screen. tHoC is currently working on a character that has to give a similar performance… with a full-time staff of 2! In this workshop Matt Estela and Andrew Daffy run through their complete process of building a photoreal character from scratch, using only commercially available tools.

PIXIONARY - game
Animation Students will battle it out and face their biggest fear - operating 3D to a live audience.
From the classic board game, we replace the pencil for a mouse and paper for Maya, and our volunteers have just 90 seconds* to build in 3D the word on the card, all set to the beats of the Countdown count down.
PLUS you can win chrome balls, dull learny posters and Haribo sweets.
*the wonderful volunteers who braved the 60 seconds at SAND 2008 (and Daffys failed attempt!) helped us to realise that a bit of ‘adjusting to a new keyboard’ time might be helpful

Daffy is delighted to be speaking at the New Connaught Rooms for Autodesk at this years ‘3December’ on - as the name suggests - the 3rd December. He’ll be combining student tips released in IMAGINE’S September issue with the latest work on the tHoC reel, including his work in progress of photoreal humanoid SWIVEL HEAD TED.

See you there!